My fiance and I are looking to buy a home in Kensington and have appointed a Kensington conveyancing practice. Within the last couple of days our lawyer has forwarded the sale agreement to be signed with a detailed report with a view to exchanging next week. The Mortgage Works have this evening contacted us to advise us that they have now hit a problem as our Kensington conveyancer is not on their approved list of lawyers. Please explain?
If you are buying a property requiring a mortgage it is normal for the purchasers' solicitors to also act for the mortgage company. In order to act for a bank or building society a law firm has to be on that lender's conveyancing panel. An application has to be made by the law firm to the lender to become a member of the lender's panel and there are increasingly strict criteria which the firm has to satisfy and indeed some lenders now require their panel members to be part of the Law Society’s Conveyancing Quality Scheme. Your solicitor should contact your lender and see if they can apply for membership of their conveyancing panel, but if that is not viable they will instruct their own lawyers to represent them. You don't have to instruct a firm on the lender’s conveyancing panel as you are at liberty to use your preferred Kensington lawyers, in which case it will likely add costs, and it may delay matters as you have another set of people involved.
We wanted to use a conveyancing solicitor in Kensington for our home move. Our financial adviser has since advised us that our bank The Royal Bank of Scotland won't deal with them. Surely this is unduly restrictive?
A mortgage company will insist on a panel conveyancer act for it. Borrowers are liable to meet the cost of this. Please make use of our tool to get a quote from a solicitor to conduct conveyancing in Kensington on the The Royal Bank of Scotland member panel.
Should my conveyancer be raising enquiries concerning flooding during the conveyancing in Kensington.
Flooding is a growing risk for solicitors dealing with homes in Kensington. There are those who buy a house in Kensington, fully aware that at some time, it may suffer from flooding. However, leaving to one side the physical destruction, where a property is at risk of flooding, it may be difficult to obtain a mortgage, satisfactory insurance cover, or sell the property. There are steps that can be taken as part of the conveyancing process to forewarn the purchaser.
Lawyers are not best placed to offer advice on flood risk, however there are a numerous checks that may be initiated by the purchaser or on a buyer’s behalf which can figure out the risks in Kensington. The standard completed inquiry forms supplied to a purchaser’s conveyancer (where the solicitors are adopting what is known as the Conveyancing Protocol) includes a standard inquiry of the vendor to discover whether the property has suffered from flooding. In the event that the premises has been flooded in past which is not disclosed by the vendor, then a purchaser may bring a claim for damages resulting from an incorrect answer. The buyer’s conveyancers will also conduct an enviro search. This will indicate if there is any known flood risk. If so, more detailed inquiries should be conducted.
I have todaydiscovered that Action Conveyancing have closed. They carried out my conveyancing in Kensington for a purchase of a freehold house 12 months ago. How can I check that my home is not still registered in the name of the former proprietor?
The quickest way to check if the property is in your name, you can carry out a search of the land registry (£3.00). You can either do this yourself or ask a law firm to do this for you. If you are not registered you can seek help from one of a number of Kensington conveyancing specialists.
Last May I purchased a leasehold flat in Kensington. Do I have any liability for service charges for periods before my ownership?
In a situation where the service charge has already been demanded from the previous owner and they have not paid you would not usually be personally liable for the arrears. Strange as it may seem, your landlord may still be able to take action to forfeit the lease. A critical element of leasehold conveyancing for your conveyancer to be sure to have an up to date clear service charge receipt before completion of your purchase. If you have a mortgage this is likely to be a requirement of your lender.
If you purchase part way through an accounting year you may be liable for charges not yet demanded even if they relate to a period prior to your purchase. In such circumstances your conveyancer would normally arrange for the seller to set aside some money to cover their part of the period (usually called a service charge retention).
I am the proprietor of a ground floor flat in Kensington. Given that I can not reach agreement with the freeholder, can the Leasehold valuation Tribunal make a decision on the premium payable for a lease extension?
in cases where there is a absentee freeholder or if there is disagreement about what the lease extension should cost, under the relevant legislation you can apply to the LVT to calculate the amount due.
An example of a Lease Extension matter before the tribunal for a Kensington premises is 93 Oakwood Court in June 2010. the LVT determined that the premium to be paid for the new lease was £492,083, This case was in relation to 1 flat. The remaining number of years on the lease was 37.79 years.
Do banks and building societies provide you with an approved list of Kensington solicitors? How do you know who is on the lender conveyancing panel?
Kensington law firm practices and firms conducting conveyancing in Kensington themselves provide us confirmation that they are on the mortgage company conveyancing panel as opposed to being supplied with a list from the lender directly.